Schools In

It would appear that the school our project team is building has slipped under the radar on my BLOG so I thought I’d give an update : Consisting of three buildings (6 classrooms, library and staff room plus a latrine block) for 164 primary school students the school will replace a temporary structure that has six rooms where they jam pack the kids in and the youngest class studies under the palm leaf patio (see picture above). The school project has taken centre stage this week. After a slow start to work in July (the school project had been stopped for security reasons for about three months) it has become apparent that the timeframe for the school project is extremely tight. As such I have spent much of the last week looking at programming of activities and in consultation with Yudha and Jean-Francois about how we can accelerate the program. The supervisors working on the school have come to the fore too, there has been a noticeable step up in energy on site (see photos below). With some reasonable weather this will be completed in October.

Money Talks

I had a difficult conversation with my brother on Sunday. I was frustrated and impatient and he was hungover and not listening. I ended up hanging up on him. I sent an apology email vowing not to call on a Sunday morning again as it was only likely to end in tears. He replied saying he understood and not to worry because “it's an incredible thing you're doing.” I’m in my second last week here in Moro’o and I definitely don’t feel like what I’m doing is incredible.

I feel this for two reasons.

The first is that to give up our comfortable little (and at times we need to realise how little) western lives for a short period of time is not impossible (contrary to popular belief) and the opportunities are out there (those who say they are not have not looked hard enough). In the same email my brother mentioned that this will be a blip on the radar and he’s right. Be not afraid people, a year not paying off the mortgage or not gunning for the next promotion will not result in an unhappy or unfulfilled life.

The second is how much I have been surprised by the number of people who see humanitarian work as an opportunity to make money. Yes they have been brave enough to step away from the comfortable life (see point one) but when their motive does no change it seems an hollow choice. Often salaries are mediocre but because one’s expenses are almost nothing many people look for NGO work to save a lot of money. No question this has a grander purpose than marketing junk food to children (or many of our inane jobs in the west) but when money is a significant reason why people are here it loses its incredibility.

Please Sir . . .

Having spent some time working out what stage we think we will be at by the end of September (10km of the 13km finished) and how much it will cost to return after the wet season to complete the road we headed to a meeting with our Donor. This meeting had two purposes, one was to explain the situation as it stands (that we won’t finish the road by October) and the other was to ask them for more money to fund the completion of the road. In reality the response of the people we met with was pragmatic. They understand how difficult things can be with the local community (they work in Moro’o also) and they have seen the challenges we’ve had in the wet. They also don’t sign the cheques so the response (not surprisingly) was “we’ll have to get back to you on this.” I couldn’t help but walk out of the meeting hoping the person with the chequebook would say no. Not because the community don’t deserve the last 3km but instead that we should be punished for not doing development well. It would make the project a “failure” and so questions would be asked , improvements made and promises in the future would be much more realistic. The alternative is the money is agreed to, the project is finished poorly (with contractors instead of workers from the community, without proper maintenance training and to a poorer standard due to the rush) and everyone walks away patting themselves on the back and happy to wildly overpromise and under-deliver on the next project.

On Nias they talk about the wet season starting sometime in September and lasting until the end of the year. It would appear that, weather-wise, things are happening a little early in 2009. At the start of last week we didn’t actually make it to Moro’o because of some flash flooding. On Wednesday we made it to site and surveyed the situation:
1. We were working in an area between two bridges called Humene and Katawaena (see photo). Both bridges were underwater on Wednesday. Work has now stopped in this area.

2. We can no longer transport stone beyond Humene Bridge so we are transport material as far as we can(to Ombolata) and stockpiling (which is very inefficient).
3. We are damagaing the road as we go. It is designed for motorbikes and the odd car so struggles with out 16 vehicles doing 10 trips per day in torrential rain especially when things like this happen (see video).

For the project as a whole it is likely we’ll lose at least a week. The prospect of not completing the road is well and truly on the agenda. We are now considering scenarios of how best to manage this situation (unless we come up with something remarkable in the meantime).

My First “Breaking the Fast” Party – Saturday 22 August 2009

Last Saturday was the first day of Ramadan and whilst Nias is predominantly Christian there are many Indonesians amongst our staff who will be fasting for the next month. Not sure what to expect I went along with the same approach to most social outings here, just wait and see. The party was no different to most I’ve been to, there was plenty of food, an old guy who spoke too much, a few embarrassed girls and plenty of shy guys etc etc. What struck me most was the conversation I had with a couple of the Muslims. Not surprisingly they are incredibly similar to most Christians (and I assume Jews but I can’t speak from experience on this one) with one striking difference. The consistency and depth to which they call on and test their own internal fortitude. Be it by not drinking or spending a month every year without food, water or cigarettes during daylight hours. Without question I have a new found respect for this and I have no doubt that many a moderate Muslim lives with a much deeper understanding of their own human spirit than many aethists/Christians I know.

How to walk away?

“Nias has benefitted from the tsunami.” This is the comment of many an expat referring to the fact that the outpouring of money and the development effort for tsunami relief. A substantial part of which was transferred to Nias after the massive earthquake four months later (2005). It is interesting to consider this statement in light of the situation of Eami, one of our drivers who I chatted with today. Eami worked for the French Croix Rouge in Aceh (presumably tsunami disaster relief or subsequent development work) as a driver and mechanic. He has since moved to Nias where there seemed to be more work with NGO’s. He is now working for ACTED as a driver but will finish in two weeks. When he is finished with ACTED he will head back to his family (wife and nine kids) in Teluk Dalam with little prospect of permanent employment (especially not a well-paid job with an NGO). I have no doubt that many houses built and livelihoods creating through the work of NGO’s have been and will be of immeasurable benefit to the people of Nias. But the shadow this benefit casts is the many people whose expertise (as a driver or translator or logistic officer) is based solely on NGO experience. Their skills are arguably transferable but with few jobs and many people those with specific experience get the roles. There is no easy answer to this problem. I have two thoughts on what the right “answer” might be. The first is to do just that, walk away, these guys will swim once thrown in the deep end that is life without NGO’s (and probably not until then). The other is development projects with delivered with patience and a long-term commitment (both of which are in short supply in the Western world . . . case in point: my 3 months here is a blip) that allow transition where independence is allowed to evolve naturally (and this takes time).

Downside of NGO’s [Wednesday 5 August]

We had our donor representative visit today which shed some more light on the apathy that surprised me on arrival (am used to it now but it is no less disappointing). Having worked in this area of Nias for some time and elsewhere in Indonesia post-Tsunami projects he has had plenty of experience with local communities. We are having difficulty getting the two villages where the road is complete to do some maintenance work on a voluntary basis. The logic being that the road is a “gift” from Caritas (the donor) and the communities should receive this gratefully by assisting with its maintenance. The reality is more like pulling teeth. My assumption was that they are lazy and ungrateful. Jean-Cyril (the Donor Rep) challenged this assumption by suggesting that in developing countries where NGO’s operate a culture of receiving develops. It is almost a survival instinct for these people to get as much as they can from the donor with as little effort for themselves as they don’t know when the next project may come along. Whilst this is hard to avoid it does beg the question are we really helping these people? In doing so it appears we are encouraging them to not help themselves, something that will no doubt be to their own detriment in the long-term.

1000 Words

The view from our coffee stop on the way back to Gunung Sitoli from Teluk Dalam.

A traditional North Nias House.

Table Tennis in Ombalata (with traditional house including satellite dish top left).

The gravel quarry at Fabaliwa Oyo (yes this river has crocodiles).

Sunrise from the ACTED Gunung Sitoli Guesthouse (our weekend sanctuary).

The crowd at Sorake.

A local at Sorake (the wave Nias is famous for).

A section of completed road about 1km from Dangagari.

Sunset at Dangagari Thursday 30 July.

Our home during the week – ACTED Dangagari Base.

It's only a little rain

After considering the program last week we decided that it was necessary to get four more vehicles (on top of 12 already here) if we are to have any chance of finishing the project in October. These extra vehicles would be particularly helpful if the dry weather stuck around. As Murphy would have it, the day after the extra vehicles started on site the rain came (today). So this morning was an adventure in wet weather driving (see videos attached – one of the 4WD’s trying to come up the hill on some very slippery clay and getting one of the Mitsubishi L300 Pickups back onto the road). It is a mixed feeling knowing that the weather has such a strong bearing on how the project will go, on one hand it is an excuse for being slow, on the other it is something that even the most meticulous planning cannot eliminate. Having arrived when 4km were done we now have about 7km complete of the 13km . . .

The Margins

It struck me that an iconic anti-capitalist book first published in 1973 could share a theme with financial planning advice from 2009. I am reading EF Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful” and he makes an interesting observation about the fact that in western society we are so detached from the infrastructure and resources that enable our lifestyle that we easily forget how much we rely upon such basics clean water and sanitation. This seemed to be echoed in a quote from an article about peak oil in a Finance newsletter (July 2009 Issue): “Our modern, developed societies tend to be removed, by their present degree of affluence, from the environment as the basis for our existence. Food comes from the supermarket; clean water comes from the faucet. But the closer people live to the margin of existence, the more they realize the vital importance of fertile soil, and safe drinking water.” (Walter Youngquist).

For me it is the photo above that illustrates this point so succinctly. Despite all the goodwill in providing a road for the local community we maintain the western approach of simply shifting the problem sufficiently so that we can ignore it. It is only that I see this pile of rubbish (from the window of our project base) every day that I am reminded of the direct impact I have on the environment. It is no different to the impact I have living in a modern city. The difference is the that having established infrastructure like reticulated water supply and a sophisticated garbage collection system makes it easier for me to detach myself from the problem. Am hoping three months of looking at this mess will stick with me for a while (and in the meantime I will try to find out what we can do with it).

That Road

So a few more details about the project. It is called the Tugala Oyo Village Access Development Project that for us (ACTED) means a 13km “Telford” Road. The attached photo gives an idea as to how the road is built. Essentially once trenches are dug for drainage stones are placed and then covered with gravel and compacted. It is by no means at the forefront of technology but is it makes use of local materials (stone, gravel, sand) and local labour through Cash-For-Work contracts (an effective way to distribute funds to the area). Whilst we normally associate cars with roads the second photo identifies one of these intended purposes (the kids are working on a completed section of road). It is designed mainly for pedestrians and motorbikes with allowance for the occasional light 4WD. It’s true benefit will be to maintain access during heavy rain (I can personally attest to the fact that even walking after not much rain is difficult in many places along the existing road). About 6km of the total 13km are complete (but we are 12 months into a 16 month program) so things will be tight . . . especially with the wet season starting around mid-September.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It seemed pretty obvious to me from day one here that there is a lack of good planning on this project (see attached photo of the program for this week). Work is done as it presents itself and as long as the team is doing as much as they can it doesn’t seem to matter how much progress is made towards the end goal (or away from it as it feels some days). My nature and experience says otherwise (that we must be able to plan things logically) and I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to come up with a way to do this (mainly in the form of a spreadsheet accounting for estimates, actual progress and work remaining). It is killing me that I can’t find a way but for every “rule” that one can establish there is a reason it won’t work (community disputes, lack of data, rain etc). When I get frustrated with a problem like this I generally try to go back to basics. Working things up from first principles often makes the picture clearer. We will see.

Expectations – Who really cares? 8/07/09
It is an underlying theme of development or humanitarian work that one should not commence work with a new community with preconceived ideas about what needs to be done. To arrive with an agenda and impose this on a community is (and many are afraid to say it) very much an imperial approach. When development is done well, a community’s real needs are identified through a thorough assessment process and projects are selected or prioritized accordingly. With this in mind (as well as an awareness of the fact that the road was nearing completion so execution rather than assessment would be required) I tried to have as few as possible but my main expectation was that the local people would have some desire to work towards a better life. I have been taken aback by what I can only describe as apathy of the Nationals working on the project but particularly the locals who will be benefitting from it. Simple things like lack of maintenance of the drainage already completed by the locals and an apparent unwillingness amongst the project staff to provide complete information are surprising. I hope my perception can change in the coming months.

Yellow Brick Road

It is awesome (if occasionally frustrating) to be subjecting the senses to a serious download again. For the next three months I'm on an island called Nias off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The island was hit by the Tsunami in late 2004 and then a large earthquake in 2005. Since then, thanks mainly to NGO's some big steps have been made towards rectifying the damage and initiating sustainable development for the people of Nias. Through EWB UK (www.ewb-uk.org) I am volunteering for an NGO called ACTED (www.acted.org) and will be working on a road (see the photo) in a place called Moro'o (where government investment has apparently been minimal at best). This blog is a chance to tell a few of the stories and begin to answer the question that its title poses . . .